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The Don Let His Favorite Rip My Wedding Dress
Novelix
Completed
Surgeon Vivian Reed believes marrying Adrian Moretti, the ruthless Don of the Moretti family, will finally end their three-year battle for love. Instead, his favorite lieutenant, Serena Blake, turns the wedding into an underworld spectacle: guests are paid to tear pieces from Vivian’s gown while Adrian watches and transfers the money. When Serena’s games endanger Vivian’s family, injure her surgeon’s hand, and desecrate her parents’ ashes, Vivian vanishes beyond the Don’s reach. Stripped of his bride, his power, and his excuses, Adrian hunts for redemption—only to discover cruelty has a price even a mafia king cannot pay in blood.
Chapters (3)
第1章
Halfway through the wedding, Don Adrian Moretti's most trusted lieutenant, Serena Blake, snatched the microphone and proposed a game.
"Let's play 'Patch the Wedding Dress.'" Serena was giddy with excitement. "Everyone tears a piece off the bride. Name your price. Boss Adrian has to buy every piece back. Then we stitch all those blessings into a brand-new gown."
The words had barely left her mouth before she reached over and ripped the thin strap from my shoulder.
I nearly flashed the entire room.
Serena held up the scrap of tulle, winked at me, and aimed her phone at the giant screen. "Like this. I'll start the bidding at five thousand."
Adrian looked at her, smiled that indulgent smile of his, took the strip of fabric, and transferred the money on the spot. The payment confirmation flashed across the screen, and the banquet hall erupted in cheers.
"Classic Serena!"
"True love means spending big!"
His men and the guests fed off each other's frenzy.
I clenched my fists and was about to refuse when Adrian leaned close and murmured, "Serena just wants to liven things up. Don't be a killjoy."
I froze.
Three months ago, Serena had stuffed a balloon under her dress, pretended she was pregnant, and tricked me into listening for a heartbeat. The balloon exploded right next to my ear and left me with intermittent hearing loss. Adrian said it was just a funny prank.
On our engagement night, she deliberately dumped my drunk, unconscious body on a street corner at three in the morning. Adrian said the same thing—she was just being playful, having a bit of fun.
In the eyes of Don Adrian Moretti, everything Serena did was fun.
The next second, someone rushed up and tore at my skirt. A swath of white fabric was ripped away, and the man waved the shred overhead, shouting with glee. "Quick! Thirty thousand!"
I locked eyes with Adrian and spoke through gritted teeth. "You transfer that money, and the wedding is off."
Adrian frowned. "Everyone's here to celebrate. Vivian, behave. Don't make a scene."
Serena pouted beside him. "Seriously. So boring."
A heartbeat later, the chime of thirty thousand dollars hitting an account rang out. Screams and laughter surrounded me, yet a strange calm settled over me.
Serena was right.
This really was boring.
She raised the microphone and announced, "Let the games begin!"
The crowd surged forward all at once. I grabbed the mic and shouted as loud as I could. "Nobody touch me! The wedding is off!"
But the microphone was dead silent.
My warning drowned under the roar of excitement around me. I stared at Adrian in disbelief. He had cut my mic beforehand.
He stood below the stage as if he had anticipated my rebellion all along. He even smiled.
Then he took two steps back, pulled Serena behind him, and let countless hands reach for me.
A high-pitched ringing flooded my ears.
The day before, Serena had lured my family and friends to a private island nearby under the pretense of a wedding rehearsal. The island was registered under the Moretti family name, and their people controlled the dock and every boat.
Right now, not a single person in this room was truly on my side.
All because she thought it was fun.
A loud rip cut through the air.
Another large panel of tulle was torn away. I finally snapped back to reality, scrambling backward, screaming until my voice cracked. "Stop! The wedding is off! I'm calling the police!"
The crowd went quiet for a split second. Even the person who had just torn my dress hesitated.
But Serena threw her arms around Adrian's neck, laughing, half-draped over him, and waved at the man. "The bride's kidding! Whoever tore that piece, come get your money!"
Adrian's lips curled, his eyes full of nothing but indulgence for her.
The man stepped forward, uncertain. The transfer chime sounded, and the crowd screamed and lunged at me again.
Soon I had nowhere left to retreat. My voice was swallowed whole. Countless hands pulled, grabbed, shoved. The fabric covering my body grew thinner and thinner.
"Adrian!"
I shrieked his name and wrapped my arms around myself, curling into a ball. Through a gap in the crowd, I saw Adrian finally glance at the pile of shredded white fabric heaped beside him. The smile slid off his face.
"That's enough."
The crowd was a pack of animals. They wouldn't stop.
"I said enough!"
The Don had spoken. Several of his men stationed along the edges of the hall moved in immediately. The crowd parted, reluctant and unsatisfied. Half my petticoat had been torn to pieces.
Someone snickered under his breath. "Couldn't beat those women to the good scraps, but getting to feel up a bride that gorgeous—not a bad deal."
Another voice chimed in. "Perks of working for the Don of the Moretti family..."
Adrian's expression went ice-cold.
He shrugged off his suit jacket and walked toward me. When he saw the red scratches streaking my arms and legs, his gaze turned dangerous. "Didn't I tell you people to have some goddamn restraint?"
Fear finally flickered across their faces. Uneasy murmurs rippled through the hall.
Then Serena sneezed. "Is the AC always this cold?"
Adrian stopped mid-stride. In the next instant, he turned and draped his jacket over Serena's shoulders.
A chill ran through me. Goosebumps prickled up my arms.
Serena made a show of shrugging the jacket off. "Don't, Boss. I'm not that delicate."
Adrian pressed down on her shoulder. "Behave."
Serena gave a soft huff. "Fine."
I took a deep breath, yanked the floor-length curtain from the nearest window, and wrapped it around myself as I stood. The moment I took a step, Adrian seized my arm.
"Where do you think you're going? The wedding isn't over."
I let out a cold laugh. "You really think this wedding can continue?"
He studied me for a few seconds, then suddenly let go and smiled. "Fair enough. The new dress will take a bit of time to piece together. Go rest in the room."
In that instant, a thousand things rushed to the tip of my tongue. In the end, I said only one.
"Adrian, we're done."
第2章
Adrian opened his mouth as if to say something.
"Boss Adrian! Get over here and help me figure out what to do with this pile—I can't make sense of it!" Serena was standing on the heap of ruined wedding dress, scratching her head.
Adrian turned to look at her and smiled helplessly. "If you can't figure it out, what makes you think I can?"
Serena was wearing his suit jacket. That jacket and my wedding dress had both come from the hands of a reclusive, semi-retired designer.
All because I had once made an offhand compliment about that designer's work, Adrian flew to Europe over a dozen times and showed up at the man's door in person before he finally coaxed him out of retirement.
When the dress arrived, Adrian handled it more carefully than I did. He said it should be kept as a family heirloom.
It didn't even survive the wedding day.
Adrian and Serena crouched on the floor, talking. Serena suddenly picked up a scrap of veil and draped it over Adrian's head, then ducked under it herself. Beneath the sheer fabric, their noses nearly touched.
Adrian's eyes went unfocused for a heartbeat.
Serena grinned, bold and unashamed. "No way. That's all it takes to rattle you?"
Adrian pulled the veil off and laughed. "Knock it off."
Serena shoved him onto his back and straddled him, tickling his sides. "You tell me to knock it off? Let me show you what happens."
The two of them tumbled together in a heap.
Guests drifted back to their seats, and the banquet hall was far from quiet. Someone whispered, "The Don really knows how to have a good time. Hires a bunch of actors as guests, stages a fake wedding, all for kicks?"
"I don't know about that. The bride seemed pretty serious to me."
"She's the only one who thought it was real. You see any of the bride's family or friends anywhere?"
"The Moretti elders didn't show up either, right? The rest of us are just hired guns."
"Who did she piss off? That scene earlier was practically sexual assault."
I shut the door and sealed those grotesque, blinding images on the other side.
When I sat down to remove my makeup in the suite, I realized my face was streaked with tears. The blessing ceremony on the wedding bed had been performed by Serena. I couldn't bring myself to touch that bed again.
I changed into my own clothes and slipped off the ring. It wasn't until I confirmed that my post-wedding fellowship abroad had been moved up that I finally felt like I could breathe again.
But my family and friends—I still couldn't reach a single one of them.
Staring at the hurricane warning on my phone, my dread deepened by the second. I called the emergency line immediately, then prepared to head for the nearest dock.
When the elevator doors opened, Adrian and Serena were standing inside.
Adrian frowned. "Serena called it. She said you'd throw a tantrum and run."
Serena sighed with theatrical disdain. "Women. So much trouble."
Adrian gripped my wrist. "Hear Serena out first."
Serena shrugged. "If you're upset because Adrian was late to the courthouse the day we went to file the marriage paperwork, all I can say is you have zero trust in him."
"He was so nervous that night. We watched those videos together just to help him relax."
"The relationship between Boss Adrian and me is completely clean. Everyone knows I'm his most trusted subordinate. Don't make it dirty."
I didn't respond. She grew impatient.
"I recorded the video so Adrian would remember what kind of reaction isn't faked. Honestly, I was doing it for your sake—for your happiness tonight. I never meant for you to see it."
By the time I processed what she was actually telling me, I was so disgusted I wrenched my hand free of Adrian's grip.
So that was why Adrian had been completely spent the next day—why he missed our scheduled appointment at the courthouse.
She didn't explain then. She didn't explain later. She chose this exact moment.
I scrubbed the skin he'd touched until it turned raw and red.
Adrian's face darkened.
I stared at him, my voice like ice. "Adrian, a hurricane is about to hit. Where are my family and friends?"
He blinked, caught off guard, and instinctively glanced at Serena.
Serena glanced down casually at her buzzing phone. "I sent a boat."
She looked up, her smile airy and weightless. "Don't you think it'll be fun? All of them rowing back across the water together?"
Then, as if she'd only just noticed the weather alert on her screen, she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? A hurricane? Well, they'd better be careful."
第3章
My heart plummeted. I spun around and bolted for the exit.
Serena stumbled when I bumped past her. I had just thrown myself into the elevator when Adrian grabbed me and hauled me back out.
"Apologize to Serena."
His grip was crushing. He pointed to Serena's arm—completely unharmed.
A strangled groan escaped me. Cold sweat beaded instantly across my forehead. Adrian froze, then followed my gaze down to my hand.
My hand hung limp. The wrist I'd twisted in the chaos earlier had fully dislocated under his force.
His breath caught. "I didn't mean to—"
I looked at him, my voice so calm it was terrifying. "Adrian, do you know what's most important on a surgeon's body?"
He said nothing. His lips had gone white.
A long time ago, he had shielded me from a patient's family member who had lost control. The man charged at me with a knife, and Adrian took the blade for me.
Back then, he told me, "As long as you're okay. A surgeon's hands are everything."
After we got together, he took over every household chore. Anything he could do for me, he did—he never let me lift a finger. Because he said a surgeon's hands were precious and needed to be protected.
"Vivian, I'll treat you this well for the rest of my life. I'm going to make it so you can't bear to leave me."
Back then, I believed his promise.
Until three months ago, when Adrian reassigned Serena back to his side.
Serena had joined the Moretti family long before I ever met Adrian. She came from the Blake family, was bold and reckless, and quickly became Adrian's most trusted—and most intimate—subordinate.
The moment she came back, my life turned upside down.
"Forget it, forget it. I'm fine. I'm not going to stoop to her level." Serena waved her hand, the picture of magnanimity.
I stepped into the elevator. Adrian and Serena followed.
Serena leaned against Adrian's shoulder and said casually, "The dress is almost patched up. Why don't you finish the ceremony first and then go pick them up? It's not like the Don and his wife are here anyway."
My parents had died in a car accident the same year I met Adrian.
I stared at Adrian. "You get away with this because I don't have parents."
He lowered his eyes and said nothing. Then he canceled the basement parking level and pressed the button for the banquet hall floor.
I pressed the basement level again, my tone dripping with contempt. "After you and Serena let those hired actors assault me, you still think I'd marry you?"
Adrian's head snapped up. "You know they're hired actors? Who told you?"
His eyes met mine, and he closed them briefly, letting out a quiet sigh. "The Moretti family refused to attend the wedding. I just didn't want you to be disappointed."
Serena clapped him heartily on the shoulder. "Boss Adrian nearly broke with his family for you. You know what that means."
I stood there for a long time, stunned.
This relationship that no one had believed in from the start had stumbled and scraped its way to today. Adrian hadn't given up. Even when I was the one ready to throw in the towel, he kept fighting.
I had hesitated through two proposals before finally accepting the ring on his third attempt. That was the first time I ever saw Adrian choke up.
He said, "Vivian, you're not getting away from me now."
That day, he held my hand and never once let go.
I closed my eyes. "Adrian, send someone to bring my family and friends back. Safe and sound."
As long as they were okay, I could consider—just consider—giving him one last chance to explain.
Serena's brow furrowed instantly. "No way. Adrian and I have a bet going. If they row back on their own, I win. If he calls in a rescue, he wins. If you make him send help, that's cheating. There's no fun in that."
She leaned against Adrian's shoulder and looked up at me. "Have some sportsmanship. Same as the dress game—Adrian's footing the bill. You didn't lose anything."
She muttered under her breath, "Calling it assault. I thought you'd be different from the last one—someone who could actually handle this kind of game."
"If you only knew—a few days ago, Adrian and I played the abstinence game. We slept naked in the same bed all night and couldn't even—"
"That's enough." Adrian cut her off.
Serena huffed but dropped it.
Adrian avoided my eyes and said quietly, "Serena knows her limits. You should have a little faith in them."
In that moment, the last ember of warmth in my heart went out.
